Early voting is down in Knox Co. and statewide as compared to 2008. According to the KNS, the Knox Co. election office attributes the results to weather, a football game, and Halloween. Doesn't Halloween occur during early voting for every November election? And football games?

One would expect heavy turnout in such a close and incendiary election, especially with competitive races down the ticket. Is photo ID having the intended effect of lower turnout?

The state election coordinator says there were only a handful of provisional ballots statewide during early voting. But, there are reports that some people are instead being given absentee ballots, which do not require photo ID.

Election officials also cannot tell us how many people didn't have and/or were unable to get photo ID and simply didn't show up. That would certainly account for lower turnout.

Off the top of my head, I would think some years Halloween would occur after early voting ends. This year early voting ended 5 days before the election (early voting ended Nov 1 and election day is Nov 6). If the election (first Tuesday after first Monday of November) falls on Nov 2 - 4, I would think Halloween would take place in the "down" period (Friday through Monday, this year, is this always the case?) between early voting ending and election day.

AOE Cliff Rodgers responds: "Just saw your blog post regarding early voting totals. For the record, during the 2008 Presidential election, early voting ended on October 30th – the day before Halloween."